In autumn the pomegranates hang on the branches, red and gleaming; pick one and it weighs heavy in the palm; crack it open and the seeds crowd together, each translucent red, as if a handful of agates had been packed into a small jar.

A Tree of Red Fire

The pomegranate is eye-catching when it blooms: the flowers are vivid orange-red, thick and creased, dotting the new green leaves one after another, so that from afar the tree seems hung with little lanterns. The leaves are narrow, glossy, and the whole tree looks spirited.

The ancients said “in the fifth month pomegranate flowers dazzle the eye”—that is precisely this redness. The fruit that follows the flowers is also a little red lantern; a single tree uses one color scheme from tip to root.

— Li Shangyin, Tang Dynasty, “The Pomegranate” —

The pomegranate bough is graceful and the fruit abundant,

the pomegranate membrane thin and translucent, the seeds fresh.

A Thousand Seeds in One Chamber

Crack open a pomegranate and inside is a room of glistening seeds, crowding close together—pinkish white, deep red, translucent, separated by thin films. “A thousand seeds in one chamber” says its look in four words.

Because the seeds are many and gathered together, folk tradition makes it a symbol of many sons and many blessings; pomegranate motifs are common in wedding customs. The shape of a fruit tree thus becomes a blessing.

The Story from the Western Regions

Tradition says the pomegranate was brought from the Western Regions by envoys of the Han Dynasty and thereafter took root in the Central Plains. The account has long circulated and fits the fact that the pomegranate is native to the West Asia region—it came along the trade roads.

Today it is grown north and south: it loves sun, tolerates drought and poor soil, and one tree is enough for a courtyard. In the north it needs cold protection before winter; in the south it stays green year-round. A tree from a foreign land lives more steadily than many native trees.

• How to know it: Deciduous shrub or small tree; leaves narrow, opposite; flowers orange-red with thick calyx; berry globose, packed with many juicy seeds; blooms May to June.
• Season: Flowers May to June; fruit ripens September to October; pick promptly once ripe—fruit left hanging too long splits easily.
• Caution: Loves sun, tolerates drought, hates standing water; in the north protect from frost in winter; in pots, control water to encourage flowering.

Grow It with Light and Pruning

The pomegranate wants full sun—the more it is sunned, the redder and the sweeter; what it fears is standing water and shade. In a pot choose a large one; roots need room before fruit will hold.

Its fruiting branches arise mostly on new wood, so in winter pruning thin out crowded and diseased branches, leaving a skeleton that lets in light. When fruit is plentiful, thin it: keep a dozen big ones rather than a tree of small ones—only by being willing to pick off do you taste the sweet.

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Keywords: pomegranate · fifth-month pomegranate flowers · courtyard fruit tree · many seeds